Love this tip from Daneen Baird, founder and editor-in-chief of SpoiledPretty.com. ‘If your skin is on the shiny side, stop by your local Starbucks, grab a handful of their brown napkins and shove them in your purse [handbag]. They work better than any blotting papers I’ve used and they’re free! And don’t feel guilty about “pilfering” from the coffee conglomerate. If they’re charging four bucks for some Java and steamed milk, they owe you a shne-free face.’

When cleansing, spend time on the nooks and crannies around your nose and jaw-line, and the cleft of the chin. But be sure to scrape hair back off your face, too, so that you can concentrate on the hairline. You’d be surprised how grubby it gets.

Eternal wisdom from the late make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin: ‘Make-up isn’t plaster. It can’t be used to fill lines and wrinkles. In fact, if you try to apply foundation, concealer and powdere over laughter lines in the hope of camouflaging them, the opposite happens. You just draw attention to them.’

Time to mow the lawn. We’re not calorie-counters, generally, but it’s impressive to learn that a 55-kilo woman will burn around 170 calories per half hour, mowing the lawn. (Ride-on mowers do not count.)

If you know you have sensitive skin, don’t dive straight in and try new anti-ageing products directly on your face – particularly if they contain AHAs or retinols. Test them on a ‘sensitive’ area, such as under the arm above the elbow, or behind the ears.

Don’t rush choosing foundation. The skin’s chemistry can make foundation and/or concealer change colour when they’ve been on the skin for a minute or two, so avoid snap decisions.

We’re not HUGE fans of selfies – but what we do know is moving the camera up or down can make all the difference, erasing or magnifying a double chin, for example. Bite the bullet, switch to the ‘selfie’ lens on your phone – and play around till you’ve figured your best angle. We promise it’s what all the bloggers do!

Lipliner is your biggest ally, if you have uneven lips. (And if they bother you. Chances are nobody else will notice, but hey…) Apply a medium-toned lip liner where lips need definition – on the inside edge of the ‘bigger’ lip, and just outside the natural lip line where you feel they are too thin. The goal is to create a balance. And if your bottom lip is thinner than your top lip, dot on a light, shimmery colour of lipstick in the centre of your bottom lip to create the illusion of fullness.

If you suffer from sensitive skin, don’t just load up with more products designed to tackle the problem. Introduce some easy relaxation methods – yoga, or even a walk around the park – which can help manage levels of the stress hormone cortisol, production of which can have a knock-on effect on skin.

For a quick exfoliating D-I-Y scrub, mix a few squirts of a favourite (we suggest inexpensive) body moisturiser with a teaspoon of sugar, in the palm of your hand. Should be enough to blitz hands or feet or elbows.

Always loved this quote from Elizabeth Hurley, who has a truly wonderful sense of humour. ‘I have a good pluck every day. You have to. The best light is on an aeroplane, where you get that vicious sidelight coming in and you see every single hair – and you could just kill yourself.’

Got a wedding coming up and you’ll need to wear heels – when you normally wear flats? Get in training. Wear one-inch heels for 30 minutes, and add an extra 30 minutes of heels time each day. Do this with two-inch heels the following week and – if you’re going that high – three-inch heels the week after. We remember supermodel Linda Evangelista once telling us that the secret of walking in high heels was to wear them round the house, ‘as if they were slippers…’

Time to get the elbows out. Resting them in halved lemons is effective, but even better if you put a squirt of olive oil onto the halved lemon. Twist, then rest your elbows there for 10 minutes while you read a paper or a book…

For a great quick-fix mask, use goat's milk yoghurt – and let it sit in the fridge for a while to ferment for longer (though not until it goes 'off'). Apply straight from the fridge to a clean face, leave on skin for 15 minutes. The lactic acid will gently get to work, brightening skin.

If you're wearing earrings, put them on before doing your make-up. We find that we sometimes need a little less on the face when it's framed by something metallic or gleaming, like a pearl. And if, say, you have a pair of red pompom earrings, you can see exactly how great they'll look with a scarlet lipstick...

Just a handy hint from two flower-lovers, here: if you ever get lily pollen on your clothes, wrap Sellotape round your fingers and press it on the pollen to lift it off, without staining the fabric. (You can also wrap Sellotape round the handle of a make-up brush to pick up stray specks from applying eyeshadow, by the way.)

All that manhandling when you have dental treatment can be bad news for skin – sometimes causing bruising because of the stretching, pulling and clamping that's necessary to reach back teeth. Sensitivity and blotchiness can also follow. Give skin extra TLC after a dentist visit: cleanse with tepid, not hot water; opt for the gentlest (perhaps fragrance-free/hypoallergenic) products in your regime, for a week or so; avoid saunas and steam baths – and skip the massage, if you do go for a facial. Your poor face has been through enough.

One sign that you're wearing too little make-up (yes, too little!) is if it disappears by noon. You may need to choose slightly deeper colours or add a dusting of translucent powder. (Another sign? If people often comment that you look tired. Take note!)

Never brush really wet hair. Towel-dry first, because wet hair has less elasticity and will break or become damaged more easily.

If you have close-set eyes, apply liner only to the outer corners, or it can accentuate the closeness.